Charnysh, Ivan

Charnysh, Ivan [Чарниш, Іван; Čarnyš], b?, d 10 December 1728 in Moscow. A public figure of the Mazepa period from the Poltava region. From 1668 to 1708 he served (with interruptions) as military chancellor; he carried out Hetman Ivan Mazepa’s diplomatic assignments in Moscow in 1699 and Constantinople in 1700 and acted as the hetman’s resident at the court of Peter I in Hrodna in 1705. He took part in the Great Northern War as commander of the Hadiach regiment. His participation in Vasyl Kochubei’s and Ivan Iskra’s conspiracy led to his imprisonment, but turned out to be useful for his advancement under Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky. From 1709 to 1715 he was the colonel of Hadiach and from 1715 to 1725 the general judge of Left-Bank Ukraine. Charnysh accumulated a huge property by violent means. In 1723 he was summoned to Saint Petersburg with acting hetman Pavlo Polubotok and was locked up in the Peter and Paul Fortress. After Peter I’s death he was released.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]